those who dare to toe the line
by thehidingweeb
Summary: AU - When Tsuna wakes up to find the tiny humanoid alien hovering just over him with those cold, seemingly lifeless eyes, he's horrified that the events of last night actually happened.


**what are titles**

**I've been writing this when my internet cuts out and it's turned out okay I guess. It kinda ends on a cliffhanger but not really? Ignore all my awkward TV tropes references I've been on there a while**  
><strong>I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn<strong>

The thing about school past the elementary grades is the fact that most kids have suddenly turned into traitorous, back-stabbing asshole of a friend. The kind of friend who would be completely loyal one day, only to proclaim you dead as soon as you yawned and claim your social position immediately. The kind who would survive a horrible situation and join your nemesis simply to spite you. The typical adolescent child.

Honestly, it was sort of depressing for Tsunayoshi to see previous friendships turn into relationships not unlike a villain and a no longer loyal second in command. The fact that he didn't really have any friends was even more sad.

"Look at dame-Tsuna, eating all by himself like usual. Where's all his friends? Oh wait, he doesn't have one!" someone jeered from nearby.

That was rude, saying something so offensive at such a short distance. Yet it happened every day. Usually after he was lamenting his lack of friends.

Either the kids in school were getting scarily good at figuring out what he was thinking, or he lamented his lack of friends a lot. Honestly, it was more likely to be thanks to the second reason.

At least his lunch was good, right? His mom spent plenty of hours making delicious meals for him to eat every day. She was the best.

As soon as he was done eating, he considered skipping the classes after lunch. Mom had said no more skipping, but... the classes were boring, the teachers were too lazy to help their students, and it would be a lot more fun than suffering more hours of school.

So, sneaking down the hallway so that no one saw him, Tsuna set out on a quest to skip the rest of the school day. If it were a cliché story, a student or a teacher would pop out of nowhere and threaten to take him to the headmaster, but his life was nothing like a stereotypical protagonist's life.

Passing by the school gates, he briefly looked around the road outside of his school, and ran away before anyone caught him, free to do whatever he wanted.

Truthfully, he was lucky Namimori wasn't a big city, otherwise police officers would've accused him of skipping immediately. In Namimori, the Disciplinary Committee took care of crime and such, each member an ex-thug recruited and trained by Hibari Kyouya himself.

Just the thought of the prefect made Tsuna shudder. He could've been caught by his school's Prefect and been sent to the hospital after a rather painful 'bite to death'.

No one truly remembered what came out of those, and for all they knew it could be extremely kinky sex. Or just Hibari ruthlessly whacking your body repeatedly with his weapons.

Ice cream sounded like a great idea, and who cared about what people ate in the winter anyways? Cold food always tasted best during the cold season, in Tsuna's opinion. So he readjusted his route to head to the local sweet shop.

When he tripped over a tiny, warm, and extremely smelly thing wrapped in a blanket, he almost considered not looking at what was inside.

Two scenarios came to mind: it could be a body part and he was now involved in a mass murder case, or this was some serious manga shit and he was about to become the clueless protagonist.

He already had the hair and abnormally large eyes to play the part, and he didn't want to. He didn't want to inspect or open the bundle at all until a tiny mewl came from within the fabric.

The thing was probably an abandoned baby animal or something, and the thought made him upset. Who would abandon a precious baby creature to fend for itself, yet unable to escape it's cloth prison? It would die in no time!

Besides, the chances of him getting involved in something were incredibly low. Miracles never happened to someone like him, and if it _was _a baby animal, he might be able to convince his mom into keeping it.

He picked it up, ignoring the smell, and quickly unwrapped the cloth to reveal...

A tiny baby face, staring at him with impossibly terrifying large black eyes, and he felt as though he were being sucked into nothingness just by looking at a baby.

"Sawada dame-Tsunayoshi," a loud voice stated, inside his head. That was absolutely terrifying. "You have been chosen as the leader. May the sky powers grant you your every need."

The voice faded away, and he blinked to concentrate on the baby snickering. However, when he looked up, the kid was just smirking at him.

"That was strange," he pondered aloud, not caring if the baby heard. The baby probably didn't know what he was saying, but that didn't matter. "What would I need those 'sky powers' for? And how did the mysterious voice even know my school nickname? That's pretty terrifying."

He probably wouldn't even need these 'sky powers' anyways. It didn't sound like something that could protect him from getting teased or beaten up, so it didn't sound very useful at all.

What was he supposed to do with the horrifying baby, though? Should he just take it back to his mom and tell her that he thought it had been a baby _animal_ and hadn't expected to find a baby _human_ at all. Knowing her, she'd adopt the little thing into their family, and then they'd be living with an infant creature who had eyes larger than a coin.

It was pretty fun to imagine what would happen if his dad ever came home and saw the baby waiting for him. His dad would probably wonder how Nana had gotten pregnant since they hadn't seen each other in forever.

In fact, his dad might panic over the thought that his beloved wife had possibly cheated on him. A perfect revenge strategy for missing all those years of Tsuna's life.

Deciding that taking the baby home would be the best choice, he set off with the stinky baby in his arms.

* * *

><p>Nana had taken to the baby immediately.<p>

When Tsuna had gotten home, she'd followed the horrible smell and found a defenceless child who needed a mother to grow. She'd accepted the challenge of another baby as soon as she saw those large black eyes, and scooped the bundle out of Tsuna's arms.

"Where did you find him, Tsuna-kun?" she questioned, wondering if her biological child had possibly impregnated a beautiful girl who was far too old for him (ah, forbidden love), who had died in a tragic event just after she gave birth to the baby. "Is he yours?"

"Ew mom gross!" Tsuna was disgusted by his mother's imagination, and it was obvious. "I don't even want to think about having children at my age! I found him abandoned on a sidewalk, and thought he was a small animal or something?"

"Don't worry, Tsu," she giggled, rocking the baby gently, "one day you'll be all into sexy things! Mama can't wait until you bring your first partner home!"

Ignoring the gags her (now) eldest son was making, she gingerly sniffed at the baby. "Hmm, I'll need to clean him up, or he'll be even more unhappy. You're in charge of dinner tonight, okay?"

With that, she left Tsuna by himself, nearly bouncing up the steps to their bathroom.

He had no idea what to make for dinner. Usually his mom made dinner or helped him make it, but today she had both teased him and left him all on his own. Honestly, his best bet was to grill fish and cook a bit of rice, and hope that Nana wasn't disappointed in his meager cooking skills.

Somehow, he managed to not burn anything, or add too much salt, and tried to arrange it so that it looked fancier on their dinner plates.

Then, he realised he had no idea what the baby would eat. Running to the emergency cupboard, he rifled through all the canned foods in search of the mushed goo that babies enjoy. At the back of the emergency cupboard, there were a few slightly dusty jars of baby food, and he pulled them out to check the expiration date.

The expiration date was set for about a week after that day, and he let out a sigh of relief while wondering exactly _how _old the jars were.

When Nana came back downstairs with a clean baby dressed in one of his old onesies, he had a tiny bowl set out for the baby, with a tiny spoon. He had prepared efficiently for this meal, and nothing bad had happened yet.

"Oh, this looks delicious! It's a good thing you can cook things like this when mama's busy! It reassures me that you can actually take care of yourself!" And with those self confidence inspiring words, she sat down to eat, tucking the baby into an extremely old high chair Tsuna had found all alone in the dining room corner.

Sometimes he had no idea if his mom was joking about him not being able to take care of himself. He hoped she was just joking.

They sat in a fairly comfortable silence, filled with Nana's happiness, Tsuna's self doubt, and the baby's strange eating noises. The baby still creeped him out.

"Mom, shouldn't we name the baby?" Tsuna asked, realizing a valid point. "We can't call him 'the baby' forever."

"You're right!" she gasped, having forgotten all about the name aspect of the new child. She made a funny face at the baby, trying to get him to laugh. "You want a name, don't you sweety?"

"Reborn," the baby replied, and all Tsuna could think was that the baby sure had a strange voice. And a strange first word, now that he thought about it some more.

"We'll name you Reborn then!" Nana cooed, lifting the tiny spoon to feed the now named baby. Reborn frowned, but opened his mouth obediently. "What a charming name for such a charming baby!"

Were he and his mom looking at the same baby? Reborn was now glaring at him, his deep black pits of eyes boring a hole into his soul.

This baby was absolutely terrifying, and he was really regretting the fact that he took him home. Too bad his mom hadn't noticed the scary factors yet, or she'd have screamed in horror. Maybe. He was probably mixing up his typical reaction and her sort of reaction.

* * *

><p>He woke up to two cold, slimy hands gripping his face, and terrifyingly lifeless eyes staring straight into his.<p>

He didn't scream. He didn't smack the baby into the wall. He didn't soil his pajamas.

Instead, his tired mind decided that talking to Reborn was a good idea.

"What's up Reborn? What do you need?"

He was surprised when the baby answered, "I need you to defend your planet, dame-Tsuna, and your duty starts today."

The voice sounded just like the one that said he had 'sky powers'.

"This is probably some kind of prank where I'm told I need to say a line to become a magical girl or something, but as soon as I say the phrase, camera men will reveal themselves and it turns out I'm on live television. Well Reborn, guess what? I'm not going to say anything like 'Sky Powers Activate! Transform!' or-"

He was cut off by an orange fire somehow starting right in the middle of his chest, and ribbony strands of fire spreading from it to connect around his now naked body. This was a really strange dream, he hoped as he began to levitate. The fire became a pure white leotard, and even more strands of fire spread from that to create elaborate sleeves with swirling orange details and a poofy orange skirt. (Why was there so much orange?, he wondered.) To complete the fire clothing transformation, it slid down his legs to make mid thigh white socks, and absolutely dainty high heels on his feet.

When he landed on the ground, a beautiful orange gem landed in his hand, along with elegant gloves encrusted with some sort of glittering gem.

"Congratulations!" Reborn grinned at him, the first true show of emotion on the infant's face. "You're now a magical girl! Welcome to the business."

Tsuna nearly screamed.


End file.
